Girls and Horses

I just finished this painting of a child trying to make friends with the horses. Some of you may know that the first seventeen years of my life were devoted to horses.

I rode them.I brushed them.I showed them.I loved them so much.

Painting this reminded me of Thunder, Misty, Emma, Noodles, the evil Queenie and the show horses Freddy and Linda. Really they were just over sized dogs. Every bit as loving as a canine companion, except for the teeth baring, run away Queenie.

Each had his or her special characteristics. Misty following us into the tack room and trying to get into the jeep, Thunder dancing as he cantered in place, Emma’s love of hoses, Freddy’s passion for cokes. Our big dogs.

I miss them and their big hearts. They listened as I talked to them about all sorts of things. Some would doubt this, but those doubters never had these four-legged friends in their lives.

This kept me going when we moved my senior year in high school. We moved away from my childhood friends, but my show horse Linda moved with me. I couldn’t wait to see her after school.

As often happens with girls and horses, things change. Girls go to college and get married and have families. Horses are sold to other little girls and pass through hands till, as in Black Beauty, the original little girl doesn’t know where her big four-legged friend wound up.

My personal equine friends have long since passed on to the great pasture in the sky. One day I will meet them again on the other side.

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One thought on “Girls and Horses”

This is an amazing painting Beth!–love the juxtapostion of the loose orange watercolor against the tightly patterned spirals of the blue ground. Your love for these 4 leggeds comes across loud and clear:-)